


Memorabilia

by thecumberbinch



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Child Abuse, Cuddling & Snuggling, Falling In Love, Fluff, Idiots in Love, Love Letters, M/M, Panic Attacks, Photography, Roses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-19 21:33:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10648485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecumberbinch/pseuds/thecumberbinch
Summary: Credence has a shoebox. What’s inside means much more than a pair of shoes.





	Memorabilia

Credence never understood the symbolism of objects and people’s attachment to them. Once a necklace is out of style, what does it matter that someone gave it to you? Someone else will get much more use out of it than you, leaving it sitting in the top drawer of your vanity. 

Now he understands the importance of sentiment. 

He keeps an assortment of things underneath his bed, hidden behind old bible copies. It’s hidden from Ma, hidden from Modesty, Chastity, and the orphans that help distribute pamphlets on the dirty city streets. There is a pair of dead roses, dry and crumbling, on top of a pile of scrawled-out notes on ratty scraps of paper and crumpled napkins covered in endearments and sappy pet names. A cheap snow globe souvenir from a faraway place is nestled between a stack of photos. A docile redheaded boy with cheeks dotted with freckles and a rosy shimmer smiles at him from every frame; except for one. This one he hides under all the rest, and he digs it out when he feels his worst. The redheaded boy has his face turned to the side, and so does Credence; they share a kiss on a backdrop of fluffy clouds and orange skies. 

The box is filled with scandal and sin, or at least that’s what Ma would tell him it was if she knew it existed. 

Credence doesn’t understand how something so wonderful could ever possibly be a sin. 

After one of Ma’s particularly brutal beatings, he reads the notes with shaking hands and tears blurring his vision. The boy tells Credence of his stories traveling the world, and how one day he’ll take Credence away with him to see India, London, and all the rest of the planet; hurried kisses are shared in empty alleyways and passionate slow ones in locked storage rooms with the lights down low. Credence revels in the memory of the gentle pressure of the boy’s arms wrapped around his waist, and the softness of sheets that aren’t his covering his shoulders. The tickle of flowers being pushed behind his ears, and the gentleness of fingers working their way through his hair, and when all hope is lost, he remembers. 

He remembers the warm smile of the boy who promises to take him away from his broken home. 

He remembers the endearments whispered in his ear when he cried in the throes of a nightmare, the sweet voice with a British lisp filling his head and the warm smell of vanilla on the boy’s skin filling his lungs until he remembered how to breathe. 

He remembers, and that’s what keeps him grounded until the next day, over and over, until they run away hand in hand under the protection of midnight shadows and quiet streets that shield them from the cruel world that hurts them. 

The box is in a backpack now, going from New York City to London and every place in between, photos and pieces being added to it every day. It’s a record of the growth of their precious love, always changing and evolving. 

Credence never understood the sentiment in inanimate objects, but he sees the face of the boy who makes his heart ache and he knows what it’s like to love.


End file.
